Brian Nichols is the co-founder of Angel Squad, a community where you’ll learn how to angel invest and get a chance to invest as little as $1k into Hustle Fund's top performing early-stage startups.

Dustin Moskovitz co-founded Facebook at age 19. Then he left to start Asana. Now he's one of the most thoughtful investors in Silicon Valley, and his approach to deploying capital reveals something important about how the best companies actually get built.

Most people know Dustin as Mark Zuckerberg's college roommate. Fewer people know he was Facebook's first CTO and the company's third employee. Even fewer understand how his experience building Facebook from zero to billions of users shapes the way he thinks about investments today.

Here's what's interesting about Dustin's portfolio: he's not chasing hype. He's not making bets on the hottest consumer apps or whatever's trending on Product Hunt. Instead, he's backing companies that solve hard problems with long time horizons. And there's a clear pattern in how he picks them.

Let's break down what makes his approach different and what early-stage investors can learn from it.

Who is Dustin Moskovitz as an investor?

Before we get into specific investments, let's establish context. Dustin's involvement in venture investing happens primarily through two vehicles:

Good Ventures: A philanthropic foundation he runs with his wife Cari Tuna, focused on effective altruism. This isn't traditional venture investing, but it influences how he thinks about impact and long-term value creation.

Personal angel investments: Dustin has made strategic investments in companies at various stages, often leveraging his operational expertise from building Facebook and Asana.

Unlike many celebrity investors who treat venture capital as a hobby, Dustin approaches it with the same intensity he brought to building products. He's technical, operationally focused, and deeply thoughtful about what actually makes companies successful.

The core thesis behind Dustin Moskovitz investments

Here's what separates Dustin from most investors: he understands the unglamorous work of building enduring companies.

Facebook wasn't successful because of a brilliant pivot or clever growth hack. It succeeded because they obsessively focused on reliability, performance, and making the product slightly better every single day for years.

Asana wasn't built on viral marketing or flashy product launches. It grew because they solved a real problem (work coordination) and built a product people genuinely wanted to use.

This operational philosophy shapes how Dustin evaluates investments. He's looking for:

1. Companies solving real problems, not imaginary ones

Dustin isn't interested in solutions looking for problems. He wants to see founders who've experienced genuine pain points and are building solutions they wish existed.

2. Founders who think in decades, not quarters

Building great companies takes time. Dustin knows this better than most. He's skeptical of founders optimizing for quick exits or chasing short-term growth metrics.

3. Technical excellence as a competitive moat

Both Facebook and Asana succeeded partly because they were technically superior to competitors. Dustin respects founders who care about infrastructure, architecture, and building products that actually work well.

Notable Dustin Moskovitz investments worth studying

Let's look at some specific investments and what they reveal about his thinking:

Vicarious: An AI company focused on building general-purpose robots. This isn't a quick-flip opportunity. It's a multi-decade bet on fundamental AI capabilities. Classic Dustin: long time horizon, hard technical problems, massive potential impact.

Gingko Bioworks: Synthetic biology company designing custom organisms. Again, this is not a SaaS company that can scale quickly. It's deep tech requiring years of R&D before meaningful revenue. But if it works, it could revolutionize manufacturing, medicine, and materials science.

Wave: Financial services for businesses in emerging markets. This one's interesting because it combines Dustin's interest in high-impact problems (financial inclusion) with solid business fundamentals (B2B fintech with clear monetization).

Benchling: Life sciences software platform. This fits perfectly into Dustin's wheelhouse: B2B software, technical users, complex workflow problems, long sales cycles, high switching costs once implemented.

Notice what's missing from this list? Consumer social apps. Marketplace plays. Quick-flip opportunities. Anything relying on paid acquisition or viral growth hacks.

Dustin invests in companies building infrastructure, not companies building on top of someone else's infrastructure.

What makes Dustin's approach different

Most investors say they want to back great founders building enduring companies. Dustin actually means it. Here's how his approach differs from typical VCs:

He's genuinely technical: Dustin can evaluate engineering decisions, technical architecture, and product trade-offs at a level most investors simply can't. This gives him an edge in assessing deep tech companies where the technology itself is the moat.

He understands product development at scale: Building products for millions or billions of users teaches you things you can't learn any other way. Dustin knows what it actually takes to maintain quality while scaling rapidly.

He's patient with timeline: Dustin isn't pressuring founders to hit arbitrary growth milestones or rush to the next funding round. He understands that building meaningful companies takes longer than the typical VC fund lifecycle.

He provides real operational value: When Dustin invests, founders get access to someone who's actually solved the problems they're facing. Not theoretical advice from someone who's only observed companies from a board seat, but practical guidance from someone who's been in the trenches.

The Asana connection: how building shapes investing

You can't understand Dustin Moskovitz investments without understanding Asana. The company he co-founded with Justin Rosenstein in 2008 embodies his philosophy about building companies.

Asana took years to find product-market fit. They didn't chase fast growth. They focused on building a product that genuinely helped teams coordinate work. And they were willing to make hard product decisions that hurt short-term metrics but improved long-term outcomes.

This experience clearly influences how Dustin evaluates investments:

Product quality matters more than growth rate: Asana could have grown faster by compromising on product quality. They didn't. Dustin respects founders who make similar trade-offs.

Enterprise sales require different skills than consumer: Asana succeeded by understanding enterprise buyers and building for their needs. Dustin knows the difference between companies that can scale in B2B versus B2C.

Cultural consistency enables execution: Asana is famous for its thoughtful company culture and values. Dustin understands that culture isn't touchy-feely stuff but a practical tool for execution at scale.

Lessons for angel investors from Dustin's approach

Studying Dustin Moskovitz investments has taught me several things applicable to early-stage investing:

1. Don't confuse exciting with valuable

The most exciting pitches often aren't the best investments. Consumer social apps generate buzz. Deep tech companies solving infrastructure problems don't. But the latter often generate better returns.

This doesn't mean avoiding consumer entirely. It means being honest about what you're investing in and why.

2. Technical evaluation matters

If you're investing in technology companies, you need some ability to evaluate the technology. You don't need to be able to write the code yourself, but you should understand the technical moat.

Can this team actually build what they're describing? Is the technical approach sound? What happens when competitors try to copy this?

If you can't answer these questions, you're investing blind.

3. Long time horizons create better outcomes

Dustin's best investments are companies that took years to prove themselves. Wave took time to build in emerging markets. Benchling needed years to become essential infrastructure for life sciences.

Patient capital outperforms impatient capital. But most investors lack the patience or fund structure to wait.

4. Operational experience is underrated

Dustin's biggest advantage as an investor isn't his wealth or connections. It's his operational experience building and scaling products. He's been through the challenges his portfolio companies face.

As angel investors, our operational experience is often our biggest edge. We should lean into it rather than trying to compete on deal access or brand name.

The effective altruism influence

We can't discuss Dustin without mentioning effective altruism. Through Good Ventures, he's committed billions to causes like pandemic preparedness, AI safety, and global health.

This philosophical framework influences his thinking about investments too. He's interested in companies that don't just generate returns but create genuine value in the world.

This doesn't mean sacrificing returns for impact. It means recognizing that companies solving important problems often have better long-term prospects than companies solving trivial ones.

What Dustin looks for in founders

Based on his investments and public statements, Dustin evaluates founders on several dimensions:

Technical depth: Can they actually build the thing they're describing? Do they understand the hard parts of their own problem?

Long-term thinking: Are they building a company or building a product to flip? Do they think about where the company will be in 10 years?

Willingness to do hard things: Building great companies requires doing things that don't scale, solving problems that aren't glamorous, and making trade-offs that hurt short-term metrics.

Intellectual honesty: Dustin values founders who are honest about what's working and what isn't. Not everything goes according to plan. The best founders adapt while staying true to their core mission.

Portfolio construction insights

Looking across Dustin Moskovitz investments, you can see thoughtful portfolio construction:

Heavy concentration in B2B infrastructure: Most investments are in companies building tools other businesses depend on. This creates natural moats and recurring revenue.

Bias toward deep tech: AI, synthetic biology, financial infrastructure. These are hard problems requiring technical excellence.

Global perspective: Investments like Wave show willingness to back companies operating in markets most US investors ignore.

Stage flexibility: Dustin invests across stages, from early-stage startups to growth-stage companies. He's not locked into a specific stage strategy.

For angel investors, this suggests we shouldn't feel bound by artificial constraints. If you have conviction and can add value, stage and sector matter less than quality.

What's changed in Dustin's approach over time

Early in his investing career, Dustin made some consumer bets. Over time, his portfolio has shifted almost entirely toward infrastructure, B2B, and deep tech.

This evolution makes sense. As Asana matured, he spent more time thinking about enterprise software, work tools, and productivity. His investments reflect this deeper expertise.

This is a useful lesson: your investment thesis should evolve as your experience and expertise evolve. Don't feel locked into an early thesis if your knowledge has grown.

The anti-hype positioning

Here's what I respect most about Dustin's investing: he's completely immune to hype cycles.

When everyone was piling into consumer social in 2011-2012, he was focused on building Asana. When crypto became the hottest sector in 2021, he wasn't suddenly investing in NFT projects. When AI took over every pitch deck in 2023, he'd already been invested in AI infrastructure for years through earlier bets.

This anti-hype positioning is incredibly hard to maintain. FOMO is real, especially when other investors are making money on trends you're ignoring.

But Dustin's approach proves you can generate excellent returns without chasing every new thing. In fact, avoiding hype probably improves returns because you're not overpaying for access to trendy deals.

The bottom line for early-stage investors

Dustin Moskovitz's approach to investing offers a refreshing counterpoint to the typical VC playbook. He's focused on companies building fundamental infrastructure, founders thinking in decades not quarters, and problems that actually matter.

For angel investors, the lessons are clear: develop deep expertise in specific areas, be willing to make long-term bets, evaluate technical capabilities seriously, and don't confuse exciting with valuable.

Most importantly, use your operational experience as an edge. If you've built products or companies, that experience is more valuable than connections or capital. Lean into it.

If you're looking to invest alongside other operators who share this philosophy of thoughtful, long-term company building, Angel Squad connects early-stage investors who focus on being genuinely helpful to founders while getting access to Hustle Fund's best deals at pre-seed and seed stage.

Whether you're writing $25k checks or larger, the principles remain the same. Find companies solving real problems. Back founders who think long-term. Provide real operational value. And have the patience to let great companies develop at their own pace.

That's what Dustin's track record teaches us. And it's an approach every early-stage investor should consider.